Existing light-emitting diode (LED) lights have become increasingly popular because they are known to be generally energy efficient, as compared to incandescent lights, and provide a high quality brightness and color. Further, LED lights are known to have a generally higher life expectancy as compared to incandescent lights. As an example, many newer LED lights have a life span of about 30,000 hours, compared to an estimated 7,500 hours for a compact fluorescent bulb and 1,000 hours for an incandescent bulb.
However, the environment in which the LEDs operate is important to their longevity. LEDs are semiconductor devices that, like most semiconductors, will degrade from excessive heat. LEDs and their drivers (i.e., electrical components) will degrade and operate less efficiently if exposed to heat gain and/or excessive temperature fluctuations. LEDs have been known to flicker, dim, or not work at all in extreme temperatures. In fact, exposure to too much heat has been considered one of the primary reasons for the failure of many LED lights. Accordingly, heat gain and excessive temperature fluctuations will decrease the life expectancy of the LED and tend to negate at least some of the positive benefits associated with LEDs.
Some known LED lighting structures require the presence of one or more fans that constantly run and pull air from the environment into the lighting structure and across a set of heat dissipating heat-sink fins. These fans require energy, add weight and cost to the lighting device, provide a point of potential electrical failure (which can serious damage the remaining components that will become too hot), and create noise.
LED lighting devices and systems have come into widespread use in homes and buildings. Known LED structures for regular ambient lighting currently dissipate heat by exposing one or more portions of the LED structure to atmospheric conditions. Some known LED lighting assemblies also expose portions, e.g., the power supply and/or driver/controller circuit, if applicable, to the atmosphere as those portions of LEDs also generate heat. In addition, a limited number of LED lighting assemblies have one or more heat sinks attached thereto to facilitate the dissipation of heat through convection. Many such LED lighting assemblies with heat sinks expose the heat sinks to the atmosphere to dissipate heat into the atmosphere. However the form, and although having a generally longer life than traditional bulbs, these known LEDs, when ran for normal periods of time, experience a drastic reduction in bulb intensity.
This is specifically applicable when LED lighting assemblies are obstructed or placed in enclosed spaces where hot air is not easily exchanged with cooler air. One example of this is LED lighting structures placed within a recessed lighting “can.” When an LED light is placed within small or enclosed areas, the space surrounding the LED bulbs is not cooled and much of the generated heat from the bulbs remains in that area. This effect is shown in FIG. 1, which illustrates a prior-art LED lighting assembly 100 within a recessed portion 104 of a ceiling 102. The hot air, represented with arrows 106, is not effectively dissipated and continually subjects the assembly 100 to air at high temperatures. As the LED assembly 100 is continually subjected to high temperatures, the lifespan of the assembly 100 is reduced and the probability of heat-related malfunctions is increased. This also renders any heat sinks 108 coupled to those prior-art assemblies 100 to be ineffective and inefficient as they still suffer from the same problems as described above, i.e. the LED assembly 100 is still subjected to previously dissipated heat.
Furthermore, as LED lighting technology is still being developed or has increased manufacturing costs, when compared to those prior-art lighting assemblies, those costs are generally placed on the consumer. As such, LED lighting assemblies can range anywhere from three to ten times more per unit price than for traditional lighting assemblies, such as incandescent light bulbs. Many users dilute those additional initial up-front costs with the continued energy savings associated with LEDs. Therefore, most users desire to maintain the LED lighting assembly lifespan as long as possible to maximize cost efficiency.
In addition, recessed lighting cans within ceilings include varying dimensions. More particularly, such cans have varying depths between the height of the socket for the bulb and the level of the ceiling. Lighting fixtures currently provided have various distances between the sockets, which accept the bulbs, and the ceiling heights. This makes little or no difference if a bulb is inserted. However, if there is a retrofit or new light which is applied and which needs to be flush or partially flush with the ceiling, fixed length shafts between the fixed socket and the lighting appliance are inconvenient. Therefore, for lighting fixtures that are intended to hang relative to the cans at a desired position relative to the ceiling, users must select a lighting fixture with a desired length, which cannot be selectively varied to accommodate recessed lighting cans with varying recess depths.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.